Final Comments

Here we are, coming down to the end of my first technology class. What an experience! I never thought that I would ever be on a blog, but here I am putting on my 5th posting. I have done a wiki page, podcast, and other great tech items. So, I would like to reflect how this experience has changed the way I approach teaching.

This course has definitely helped me to develop my tech skills for teaching. I had always thought of myself as an "old school" teacher. I was taught in a traditional way and that was just fine with me. I loved to just get down and dirty with a pencil (wooden) and paper and work through some math. But students are not like me, they need some more stimulation with their instruction. This class has given me many different options to do this. This course has shown me the different ways to involve students in the learning process. My new skills with wikis, blogs, and the like will allow me to revamp my lessons. I can't wait to employ my new skills which I have developed in this class.

I believe that this class has also changed my view on how my students learn and their learning processes. Are students' minds some how different because they are digital natives, I don't know. But, I do know that students are coming into school with a different set of skills. They are multi-taskers. They have an incredible ability to take in media, and they have a much better grasp of technology. Teachers have to tap into these skill when teaching today's students. I have to keep the students busy. I cannot drone on with lecture. I must give the students as many opportunities to learn as possible.

And that leads me to how I have changed the orientation of my classroom. I have started to change it from a teacher-centered to a student-centered classroom. This is difficult to do because I have to tap into my students' natural inquiry. And, that inquiry is hard to find, especially in a math class. I have to some how get the students moving in the right direction and them keep them rolling in math. Honestly, this will be a big challenge for me, but this class has shown me the importance of a student-centered classroom, and I hope that I can accomplish this someday soon.

This class has also shown me the need to keep up with the changing technology field. This is how I will continue to expand my knowledge, which should help my students. I need to always be looking to find the next best thing that will help my students learn. I need to be on the cutting edge of the technological advances. This will also help me teach some of my other colleagues some tools to help them.

I have two main long-term goals when it comes to technology. My first goal is to have an outstanding website for each of my classes every year. I want it to have links everywhere. I want all of my notes loaded onto it. I want it all! This will greatly change the dynamic of my class for the better.

My other goal is to be a leader in technology policy and implementation in my school and district. I am currently on the technology committee for the district and I would like to be a fixture on it for a long time. I also want to lead some professional development on technology. I want to help other teachers learn the advantages that I have learned in this class.

Well, there it is. I hope that others have enjoyed the class as much as I have.

It's been fun!

Tyler

Hello Class,

Here is a link to a teacher tube video that I put together rather than a podcast. I have Notebook 10 from Smart Technologies and they have a video recording program that works great. So, I thought that you might like to have some graphs along with my boring monotone voice:

The link is:

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=9f75d1bb84ea4bed6423

Enjoy!

Tyler

Hey everyone,

I hope everyone is doing well. I feel that I am running on empty this time of year. The days are getting longer, but I still can't find time to get everything done!

But, you didn't tune in to hear about my schedule, you want to know about what I think about the site The Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Well...I will tell you.

I think that this site has the right idea. First, let me tell you that I am impressed with the list of partners on the site. Companies like Cisco, Dell, Intel, and Apple are all partners in this partnership. So, I think that the people involved in this site are legitimate. I believe that everyone involved has a stake in preparing students/future workers for working in the 21st Century.

I also think that the skills and core subjects that the site lists are on target. Learning and Innovation, Life and Career, Core subjects and Media/Technology skills are all important skills that our students need. The site also gives ideas for standards, assessments, learning environments, and professional development opportunities that can help teachers get their classrooms into the 21st Century mode.

But, as a teacher I did not find this very user friendly. Perhaps if I subscribed to the site, I would get some better information, but everything I saw was an overview of the program. I looked at some of the online resources, but I don't think that they were organized very well. Plus, some of them very not helpful at all.

So, this site has the right idea, but that is all it is, an idea. As a teacher, I not impressed or inspired to get into the 21st Century skills way of teaching. I have seen other sites with standards for technology that have been much more user friendly. If they cater more to teachers, then I think that I would get on board, but not quite yet.

Here is another site that I think might be just as, if not more helpful.

http://www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=NETS

Let me know what you think!

Tyler

Response to comments

Hey everyone,

I would like to thank you all for your thoughtful comments on my Blog posting. I am taking into consideration all of your great ideas. I really enjoyed the idea of having students help build and maintain the blog. Also, the idea of using class notes to first start the blog so that there is not so much work to get it off of the ground is great.

As to the idea of parents participating on the blog, I wonder how differently the parent would use the blog versus the students. I think that they would use it to check the assignments and the like, but I still think that email should be the main form of communication between the parent and the teacher. The blog is not confidential, so nothing confidential should be put on the blog. It should be general information and help.

Thanks again everyone. Great posts and I will see you next week!

Tyler

How can this blog help me teach?

Bogging Huh? Well, it sounds like a great idea, but how is it really going to help?

I have a few ideas that I am going to throw out there. I teach high school mathematics, 10th and 11th grade Geometry and Algebra II. So, the idea of writing or journal prompts doesn't really appeal to me. It seems that kind of thing is better left to the Social Studies and Language Arts classes of the world. Math is a different kind of animal. Here is what I have thought of so far:

1st Idea: Absent work/Make up work.

I always seem to have 4 or 5 students every year how have a propensity to miss long stretches of school. Whether it is mono, or the flu, or the "My parents are taking our family to Hong Kong for two weeks" excuse, something always keeps these kids out of school. But they always come back asking the most annoying of all questions, "What did I miss?" Oh, I hate that question. This is where I feel the blog can help. I can post the homework assignments, dates of test, what will be one the tests, electronic copies of the worksheets and reviews. Students could have access to all class materials right from home. They can lay in bed with Strep Throat or Pink Eye and print off their own worksheets to do! They can keep up with the class from home. And just think about this! If I can transfer all of my notes to PowerPoint or word, they can get all of the notes too. Perhaps I could even get a textbook with an online version. I could just throw the link on the blog and they might never need to come to school ever again. Hey, maybe I could teach from home too.....Just a thought.

2nd Idea: Differentiating instruction

I have a lot of knuckle-head students who have no note taking skills even as a high school junior or senior. I also have a lot of students who are bored out of their minds because I go over the most simple of examples time after time. The blog might allow me too give extra help to the struggling kids and challenge the excelling ones at the same time. For those struggling students, I could post some tutorials that I could make on PowerPoint or even a video on a media player. I could also give a link to other helpful sites on the web that they can visit for extra help! It could really help them a lot when they sit down and their mind goes blank when they try to do their homework. For those bright students, I could post some of the challenging problems that I can never get to in class. There are so many great application problems that build links for students between math topics and also build link between math and other subjects. I could post these problems on the site and they could be extra credit problems. So whether it is helping the bottom of the class or unleashing the hounds at the top of the class, this blog could give some of the additional, differentiated information that I want to get to in class.

3rd Idea: Parent Communication

This one might be pretty obvious, but parents could ask me any questions about upcoming tests, current grades, time I might be available to help theirs kids or get together for a conference. I always had aspirations of sending home a quarterly newsletter to all of my parents. I could save the paper and just post it on the blog (students would never get the letters home anyway).

These are a few ideas. They probably aren't the most original ideas, but our resources mentioned how technology is meant to fulfill our needs as a society, and these ideas would definitely fulfill some of my needs.

Let me know what you all think!

Tyler (Blogging my Life away) Winner

Start up!

This is the first blog post on what will be a very educational blog for both myself and any of my possible readers.

Good luck to as us all as we try to tackle technology.